Zigmund Palffy

Despite being an Islanders fan for about the past 14 years, I am an original Brooklyn-ite. Like many people my age that reside on Long Island, I moved with my family from Brooklyn when I was young. At the age of 8, in the middle of the third grade, my family decided to leave Mill Basin for Nassau County.

I can’t say I was a hockey fan at the time. In fact, I didn’t follow sports at all. Aside from being enrolled into the typical Little League baseball and soccer games that most kids went through, sports didn’t matter to me. And hockey? It wasn’t even something I really thought about unless I was hanging out with my friend who lived on East 53rd street that happened to be a Rangers fan.

In the final season at Nassau Coliseum, the Islanders are looking to honor the great history within the Barn’s confines. A building that opened its doors in 1972 has seen a plethora of great moments but unfortunately for fans younger than 40, they failed to duplicate that success at any point since the Drive for Five stalled.

As the Barn closes its doors for good, the Islanders need to honor the few bright spots from the dark days. We all love the dynasty but there are a few players that were great but just born in the wrong era of Islanders’ hockey.

Don’t forget some of the overlooked heroes that seemed to be the only ones competing at a high level during the down years.

For fans in their early and mid-20s, success was a fairy tale; a pipe dream. The majority of our memories of the Nassau Coliseum will unfortunately wind up being predominantly negative. There is no way to sugar coat the facts. Since 1993, the Coliseum has soaked up more tears of sorrow than joy.

When the puck drops in October ushering on another Islanders season, we all sit in anticipation of what may be. This hope makes us realize why we love this team all over again, every single year. For a fan base starving for winning on a consistent and familiar basis, the beginning of the season leaves us hopeful, sometimes without much reason. There have been years walking through the doors of the Old Barn realistically knowing that we were about to witness the tapping of a keg full of losing hockey. Call us delusional if you want but I prefer passionate.

In the mass of orange and blue, I reside. It has been that way since I was a young boy. I never really stood a chance really, simply because they were my first love. You'd think with first memories of a horrendous team through the mid to late nineties I would have turned and run far, far away. But I didn't. I stood by this team, just as I do now because I love them unconditionally although it hurts a lot of the time. I don't know exactly where I was hooked forever but I know I am. Maybe it was the slick hands and awesome hair of Ziggy Palffy. Or perhaps it was the hard hitting, hard nosed style of Darius Kasparaitis? Could it be the legitimate tears that filled my eyes as Michael Peca disappeared into the locker room in 2002 after that cheap shot from Darcy Tucker? It might have been the literal seismic wave that eclipsed all of Nassau County after Shawn Bates buried that penalty shot against Curtis Joseph. All of these moments and more, knit themselves into a thread that binds all of us together.

Mike Milbury is a name that has stained the heart of almost every Islanders fan; he drafted well, but traded away almost everyone that had potential, allowing those on the Island to watch their young draft picks develop into stars on other teams around the league. Such names include Todd Bertuzzi, Darius Kasparitis, Roberto Luongo and Zigmund Palffy. Most of his trades were questionable at best, the contracts he offered were often mind boggling, and he is heralded by Isles fans as possibly the worst General Manager in NHL history.

But despite that hefty resume of accusations, Mike Milbury currently has an even bigger one on his hands.

According to TSN, Milbury has been accused of assault and battery on a twelve-year old involving an altercation during a pee-wee hockey game.